Continuous tunnel-kiln



P. A. MEEHAN.

CONTINUOUS TUNNEL KILN. ,'APPucATl'oN FILED 11111.2. 1920.

Patendoet. 12, 1920..

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CONTINUOUS TUNNEL KILN.

APPLICATION FILED IAN.2. I92o.

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Patented Oct. 12, 1920.

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M @JWM UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PAUL A. MEEHAN, OF NEW CASTLE, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR .T0 AMERICAN 'DRESSLER TUNNEL KILNS, INC., YORK.

OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION 0F NEW CONTINUOUS TUNNEL-HLN. i

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 12, 1920.

Application mea January 2, 1920. serial No. 348,785.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, PAULA. MEEHAN, citizen of the UnitedStates, and resident of New Castle, in the county of Lawrence and State of Pennsylvania, have inventedI certain new and useful Improvements in Continuous Tunnel-Kilns, of which the following/[is a specification.

1 y present invention relates to continuous kilns of the tunnel type in which the goods to be heated are moved through an elongated kiln chamber on cars which normally form a slow moving train filling the kiln, one' car passing out through the exit end of the kiln as fast as a fresh car is inserted at the entrance end of the kiln. Kilns of this character are well adapted for use in clay and pottery treating, metal annealing and for many other purposes, and are now in eXtensive use in this country.

In many cases the economical use of the heat, the necessity of gradually heating up the goods treated, and for subjecting them to drying, burning or annealing temperatures for considerable periods, require a kiln several hundred feet in length. The general object of my invention is to provide a kiln formed in sections disposed at an angle to one another, and cooperating apparatus, which shall be relatively simple and satisfactory under the conditions of operation to which it is subjected, for moving cars through the various kiln sections, and from one section to another. I thus obtain a kiln in which the over-all length of the kiln structure as a whole, is substantially less than the eective length of the kiln chamber proper.

The various features of novelty which characterize my invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this specification. For a better understanding of the invention, however, and the advantages possessed by it, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which I have illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of the invention.

Of the drawings:

Figure 1 is a plan with'parts broken away in section,

FFig. 2 is a section on the line 2 2 of Y Fig. 3. is a view taken similarly to Fig. 1, but on a larger scale, showing a portion only of the apparatus and having parts .broken away, v

Fig. 4 is a partial section of Fig. 1 and Fig.. 5 is a the line 5 5 of Fig. 1.

.In the drawings I have shown a tunnel kiln comprising a high temperature or hot zone A, andl a heating-up zone formed of sect1ons A, A2, and A3. In the particular form. of kiln illustrated, the benches B are provlded at the sides of the pathway through the hot zone A, for the goods carrylng cars C which run on track rails D. The

hot zone is heated the combustion of fuel products of combustion in, and the travel o through, the combustion chambers E located one on each bench B: As shown, gas, and and air for its combustion are supplied through inlets F and G respectively, to one end of each combustion chamber, and products of combustion are withdrawn from the combustion chambers at their opposite ends through ports H which are connected by a conduit H to a draft producing device as the stack H2. Each combustion chamber E is shown as formed of tile having open ended Ventilating chan'nels E through which the air or gases forming the kiln atmosphere may pass upward past and receive heat from the combustion chamber, the heated air or gases then flowing downward through or along the goods on the goods carrying cars C. In the respects just noted the kiln is a typical Dressler kiln as shown, for example by patents to Conrad Dressler #1023628 and :tj: 1170428.

In my improved kiln, a portion of the heating-up zone is out of alinement with the hot zone. As shown in the drawings, the section A of the heating-up zone is in alinement with the hot zone, the section A2 is transverse to the hot zone and the section A3 is parallel to the hot zone but is laterally displaced from the latter So as to be in alinement with the return track, the track rails D3 of which extend through the section A3. To get the cars around the corner from the section A2 into the section A I employ a turntable K, and to get the'cars from the on the line 4-4; partial section on a track 111 as havinlg the usual 'rollers K 2, and carries a gear wheel 3 mesh with a worm L which may be rotated by an external hand-wheel L. The turntable, Kcarries two sets of track rails D andl)10 which cross one another at right angles so that a car brought on to the turntable from the section A2 may be moved into position toxenter the section A by a quarter turn of the turntable K. The latter is formed with notches K4 adaptedto be entered by a bolt or locking bar M to lock the turntable in either of its four operative positions. -The turntable KA may be, and is shown as being, identical in construction and operation With the turntable K.

To pull a car from the section A2 onto the turntable K, and center it on the latter, I employ, in the construction shown, a special car mover, comprising a bar P (see Fig. 5) which may be reciprocated inthe direction of its length by means of a lever P3 fulcrumed against the kiln Wall and may be rotated by means of the handle P2 to move its lugs P into and out of the position in which they engage the car lugs C as shown in Fig. 5. This car moving device is disclosed and claimed in my prior Patent No. 1,326,959, granted Jan. 6,' 1920. To ad- Vance the car at the head of the train normally filling the section A3 of the kiln and center it on the turntable KA, I employ a car moving device PA which may be identical with the device P already described. To push a car off the turntable K into the kiln section'A and advance thetrain of cars normally filling that section of the kiln and the hot zone A a car length at a time, I employ a pusher O which maybe of the usual type employed to push cars through tunnel kilns and as shown, comprises a bar O passing through an aperture in the kiln wall in line'with the zone A and section A and reciprocated by means of an electric motor O and suitable speed reducing gear. A similar car pusher OA is em- ,ployed for pushing cars off the turntable KA and into the section A2 and for advancing a car previously located in that section a car length at a time. In the particular construction shown,'the parts are so proportioned that with a car centered on each of the turntables K and KA, there Will be but a single car in the section A2. The cars are entered in the section A3 by a car pushing device shown as comprising a belt or sprocket chain T arranged between the track rails D2 and provided With car enaging lugs T2 and driven by a motor T.

he cars ejected from the kiln one at a time past the exit door S are received on a transfer car (not shown) which may be of the usual construction and which runs on the tracks Q, and may serve tomove the cars to a goods handling station or stations (not shown) before returning them to the adjacent end of the return track D2. As

shown, a shed or housing R covers the end of the. return track adjacent the transfer track and serves as a chamber in which the trucks may cool'off gradually, before being reinserted in the section A3 which forms the entrance end of the kiln.

In operation the cars are 'inserted by the chain of the kiln. As each car comes into proximit with the turntable KA, it is engaged by t e car mover PA and centered on the turntable, the latter is then given a quarter turn, after which the pusher OA is o erated to push the car off the turntable I A and advance the car previously lstanding in the kiln section A2 into proximity to the turntable K. The car mover P is then operated to draw the adjacent car from the section A2 on to the table K, after which the latter is given a quarter turn and the pusher O is then operated to push the car offl the table K vinto the kiln section A and to advance the train of cars in the hot zone A and the kiln section A a carlength; rIhe door S being opened at the proper times to permit the adjacent car to pass out of the kiln.

The particular form of tunnel kiln in which I have shown my present invention embodied is one in which the goods are taken out of the kiln at the high ytemperature and in which the heating-up zone is `one at a time, in the entrance end comparatively short, thus differing from the more common examples of kilns in which the heating-up zone is relatively longer and contains heat radiating conduits and in which the kiln chamber is extended beyond the exit end of the high temperature Zone A to forma cooling zone vordinarily containing conduits for a cooling fluid. I mention this difference between the particular form of'kiln illustrated andA more common types of tunnel kilns, to emphasize the fact that such a difference is not a characteristic of my present invention, Which is equally applicable to many different forms of tunnel kilns.

With the simple and practical construction illustrated it is possible to provide a kiln chamber of the proper length to insure a given capacity with a gradual heating up of the goo'ds and the exposure of the latter to heating or drying temperatures for suitably prolonged periods with an over-all kiln an ordinary city block, and heretofore this' fact has prevented the installation of continuous tunnel kilns in places where they would otherwise have been installed.. The arrangement of the kiln in two parallel sections connected by a transfer section as in the particular form of my invention illustrated possesses the satisfactory advantage that one section of the kiln may be in alinement with the return track. The mechanism shown for transferring cars from one kiln .section to another out of alinement with the first section are simple, compact and well adapted for continuous use under the temperature conditions to which they may be subjected. A special advantage of the construction which may be of much practical importance in some cases arises from the fact that the same end of each car remains the front end of the car in the various sections of the kiln.

While in accordance with the provisions of the statutes I have illustrated and described the best form of embodiment in my invention now known to me it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that changes may be made in the form of appa ratus disclosed without departing from the spirit of my invention as set forth in the appended claims and that in some cases certain features of my invention may be used to advantage without a corresponding use of other features.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

l. In a continuous kiln of the tunnel type, an elongated kiln chamber comprising two sections meeting at an angle and a turntable within the kiln chamber at the junction of said sections for receiving a goods carrying car approaching the table from one section and rotating it into alinement with the other section.

2. In a continuous kiln of the tunnel type an elongated kiln chamber comprising two sections meeting at a right angle and each provided with a track for goods carrying carrying cars aproaching the table from one section and rotating it into alinement with the other section, a car advancing device for engaging each of the cars successively approaching the turntable and moving it on to, and centering it on the turntable, and a car pushing device for engaging each of the cars successively centered o n the turntable and pushing it into, and thereby advancing the train of cars in, said other section.

l 4. In a continuous kiln of the tunnel type, an elongated kiln comprising two sections arranged side by side and a transfer section connected at one end to one, and at the other end to the other of the first mentioned pair of sections and a turntable within the kiln chamber at each junction of the transfer section with the other two sections, tracks for goods carrying cars in the three kiln chamber sections and tracks on the turntable, each turntable track being adapted to register with the track in one of the adjacent kiln chamber sections in one an ular adjustment of the turntable and wit the track in the other adjacent section in another angular adjustment.

Signed at New Castle, in the county of Lawrence and State of Penna., this 27th day of December, A. D. 1919.

PAUL A. MEEHAN. 

